Daily writing prompt

What are you most proud of in your life?

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This one is easy. What am I most proud of in my life? My family. My wife is a genius and a phenomenal software engineer who is capable of anything. My step kids are both brilliant as well. We have one college graduate and one college student, both of whom have grown up to become fine adults who are on the cusp of achieving great things. I simply cannot wait to see where their lives take them.

I don’t know what I did to deserve becoming a part of this family, but it is clear that I am the luckiest man alive.

Daily writing prompt

What have you been working on?

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I have a number of little projects in the works at the moment, but I haven’t been making a lot of progress on any of them. Here’s a list of a few of them…

• Figuring out whatever is going on with my back pain/stomach pain this weekend. That’s sort of first and foremost in my tiny little brain, for obvious health reasons.
• Binge watching all of the original Doctor Who. I just finished season 20. Only six more seasons and one made for TV movie left to go. I’ve already finished the revival show, all 13 seasons. Will I finish everything by the time the new 60th anniversary episodes air? I think that’s likely.
• Various music, song writing, home recording projects are in the works, but it has been about a mont since I’ve made any progress on any of them.
• Redesigning, cleaning, and furnishing the kids’ bedrooms. I made a bit of progress on this one last weekend, but my pain problems have gotten in the way this weekend.
• The never ending Flickr Photo-a-Day challenge, also known as the 365 challenge… or maybe the 366 challenge this year thanks to the leap year. I’ve finished this four years in a row and we’re 52 days into year five. I’m going to put a stop to this one someday, but not today.

There you have a few current projects that I am working on these days. There are more, but these are the ones that get most of the brain focus. Nothing too serious, apart from fixing the kids’ rooms, but all are important to me to various degrees.

Daily writing prompt

What’s something most people don’t know about you?

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I’ve been oversharing in public blog form since 2008. Is there anything that anyone doesn’t know about me? I doubt it. At least I can’t think of anything.

Everyone knows I am married with two step kids. Everyone knows I play guitar and like photography. Everyone knows I’m a programming supervisor. Everyone knows I like traveling and road trips. Everyone knows I am an atheist and a militant red head and I had gastric bypass (because I never shut up about it).

I mean… what else is there?

Here’s one, I guess… I had a shitty night’s sleep last night and when I woke up (way too early) I had quite a bit of pain in my lower back, on the left side. It was enough that I couldn’t go back to sleep and now I am exhausted, in pain, and somehow need to do my morning exercise.

How does that work? Does that count as something no one knew about me?

Daily writing prompt

Do lazy days make you feel rested or unproductive?

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In my house we have a tradition that we used to call “flake days.” The kids were little and had all sorts of activities on the weekends and we would be running ragged trying to keep up with everything. Every now and then the schedule would work out and we would have a day with nothing scheduled so we’d take advantage of it by just spending the day flaking in font of the TV watching movies or playing games or just reading a book. Those were lazy and unproductive days but they were simply wonderful.

Now that the kids have grown up and moved out I still find the occasional flake day to be beneficial. They are definitely unproductive and I do often feel guilty about that, but Jen and I both work hard during the week and sometimes a quiet, unproductive Saturday or Sunday is just what we need.

I look at energy and motivation and drive as a sort of gas tank. Sometimes you need to take a weekend day off to let the tank fill itself up so that you are better equipped to handle what comes up during the week. Does that make sense? Is that me justifying being lazy? Probably. Do I care? Nope, I do not.

Daily writing prompt

When you think of the word “successful,” who’s the first person that comes to mind and why?

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There are many types of success. I have one particular example in mind. There’s the success Steve Jobs had. He was massively successful as both a business man and in revenge. No. really. Think about it. He started Apple with two other guys. Built it up to be a major player in tech and then the company kicked him to the curb. What did he do? He started a competitor, watched in delight as Apple nearly destroyed itself, then when they were about to go under he came back and turned them into one of the biggest companies on Earth. That’s professional revenge at it’s finest. It’s not what I am going for in this post though.

How about Miss Swift? Her music makes me nauseous, but some how she has managed to become a galaxy sized success in an industry that literally does not exist anymore. The music business ate itself through stupidity and short sightedness and yet somehow she still remains as a giant standing above the ruins. How? Why? What does it all mean? It’s success on an unbelievable scale but it’s not what I am going for in this post.

Nope, the success I am thinking of is my parents. 55 years. My parents were happily married for 55 years. Yes, the last few were brutally difficult as my mother’s dementia progressed, but when she passed away in February they had been married for a smidge over 55.5 years. I call that success. That’s the kind of success I would like to have in my life, though if Jen and I are going to make it to 55 years I will be 93 years old so… yeah, not likely. Still, it’s a lovely goal, isn’t it?

So there you have it. When I think of success, this is what I think of. My parents’ marriage. May we all be so lucky.